Airlines On Lookout For Frequent Filcher Miles

March 2, 1997|By BARBARA SHEA Newsday

Don't have enough frequent-flier miles for that dream trip to Maui? Or maybe you have more miles than you could possibly use in three lifetimes. No problem. Mileage brokers will pay cash for excess miles or turn someone else's stockpile into a ticket for you.

But think twice before you're tempted by ads dangling such offers. Airlines reportedly are cracking down on this thriving but illegal trade.

Major carriers have tried various tactics to limit the use of frequent-flier freebies _ which naturally cost them revenue they could earn from a passenger who pays full fare. There are mileage expirations and limited qualifying periods for free trips. Some airlines even hold auctions to coax very frequent fliers into swapping chunks of mileage for exclusive perks such as a chance to play in celebrity golf games. Now, according to the current issue of Travel Holiday magazine, they're increasingly on the prowl for tickets that have been ``purchased'' with other people's miles.

``In case after case,'' writer Christopher Byron reports, ``the courts have ruled that frequent-flier miles are the property of the airlines, not the recipients, and that the airlines are entitled to restrict their resale . . . Brokers have been fined, raided by federal agents and had their business shut down. Yet they still keep climbing back in the ring.'' He continues that ``the real patsies'' aren't the sellers but the buyers _ who are easier to catch.

Converting your own hard-earned miles into a plane seat can be a cumbersome process that involves a personal visit to the airline ticket counter. So how do brokers manage to do it over and over for countless strangers?

The mileage-brokering business hinges on the fact that although airlines have restrictions prohibiting the sale of miles, travelers are usually permitted to give them away.

To see how the process works, Byron called a broker that advertises in a national newspaper and offered to sell 30,000 frequent-flier miles. ``They instantly offered me $325,'' he said. ``All I had to do was go to the airline's ticket office at [New York's) Kennedy Airport and ask for `expedited' processing.'' The brokerage firm instructed Byron to have the ticket made out in the name of one of its clients and to send it via a private delivery service to a certain address. Byron said the broker told him that after he'd done all that, they'd reimburse the $60 fee the airline charges for issuing a ticket on the spot.

Byron also describes in his article how airlines can spot phony frequent fliers (an entire wedding party once was nabbed en route from Hawaii to Connecticut, he says). He concludes that the only way to avoid having such a ticket confiscated is by saying a friend gave it to you _ thus knowingly assisting in defrauding an airline, which could mean conviction and a criminal record.

Ironically, Byron says, courting a jail sentence may hardly be worth the risk. When he called the broker again _ this time saying he wanted to buy a ticket _ he got anything but a great deal. The $400 ticket price quoted for flights from New York to Los Angeles and back was $100 more expensive than the $300 round-trip his regular travel agent found. The cheaper ticket's only restriction was that he leave or return on a weekend _ a small sacrifice, he felt, to stay within the law.